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Heroes and Villains of Tech Here's a look at standout good guys and bad guys -- from passionate heroes who balance profit with innovation and social responsibility to money-mad, egomaniac villains who simply cannot be trusted. Shane O'Neill, CIO Feb 28, 2010 1:30 pm http://www.pcworld.com/article/190372/heroes_and_villains_of_tech.html?tk=rss_news

A boat sails next to Olympic rings in the Vancouver harbor on February 9, 2010, three days before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. 11:51 p.m. ET, 2/9/10 March 1, 2010 Olympic Flame Burns Brighter on Last Day of the Games By JULIET MACUR VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Olympics that started under the cloud of an athlete’s death ended Sunday, much more joyously than they had begun. A victory by the Canadian men’s hockey team over the United States in the final competition of these Games spurred throngs of fans onto the streets, where they celebrated a gold medal — and an Olympics — that united this nation. In waves of their red and white Canadian hockey jerseys, they waved flags and shouted “Go Canada!” to mark the country’s record 14th gold medal here. “I knew the Games would be a success, even though in the beginning they were a bit gloomy, with legitimate issues and teething pains,” Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee...

A TV grab from Telesur shows an image of a burning building in Concepcion after a huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile, Feb. 27. breaking news NBC, msnbc.com and news services UPDATE 11-Massive earthquake strikes Chile, 122 dead http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSNLDE61Q02O20100227?type=marketsNews 11:19am EST * Quake kills at least 122 people * Buildings toppled, bridges and roads damaged * Operations halted at two major copper mines (Updates with death toll, adds details) By Alonso Soto SANTIAGO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 122 people, knocking down homes and hospitals, and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific. TV Chile reported that a 15-storey building collapsed in the hardest-hit city of Concepcion, where buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and cracks opened up in the streets. Cars turned upside down lay scattered across one damaged bridg...

February 26, 2010, 10:54 am Freakonomics Radio, Fat Edition: Is the Obesity Epidemic for Real? By STEPHEN J. DUBNER   We’ve just completed our second full-length podcast. It’s called “Is America’s Obesity Epidemic for Real?” It costs $0.00. (The podcast, that is, not the epidemic.) Get it here at iTunes; if you subscribe, all future episodes will be delivered in your sleep. You can also get it here via RSS feed, or listen now (see box at right).   If you are a regular reader of this blog, you could be forgiven for thinking, Geez, when will these guys shut up about fat already? True, we have written on the topic repeatedly, including: an astounding spike in bariatric surgery; the female-male weight gap; a possible connection between plumbing and obesity; the usefulness of posted calorie information in restaurants; whether behavioral nudges like “piano stairs” help keep people trim; and whether it may be time for a fat tax. The podcast touches on several of these i...

Call her queen: Kim Yu-na wipes away tears after her stunning gold-medal performance in women's figure skating at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on Thursday, Feb. 25. The South Korean soared to a world-record 228.56 points -- and earned her country's first medal ever in the sport. Despite two triple axels, longtime rival Mao Asada of Japan could only win silver. Joannie Rochette, skating four days after her mother's death, won the bronze for Canada. South Korea's Kim Yu-na celebrates with her coach, Canadian Brian Orser. http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=e554cf17-5d3c-4531-9dc6-c9a9cf5eec06.html#queen+yu+na+crowned from msnbc.com

Australopithecus afarensis To recreate the faces of our early ancestors, some of whom have been extinct for millions of years, sculptor John Gurche dissected the heads of modern humans and apes, mapping patterns of soft tissue and bone. He used this information to fill out the features of the fossils. Each sculpture starts with the cast of a fossilized skull; Gurche then adds layers of clay muscle, fat and skin. Seven of his finished hominid busts will be featured at the National Museum of Natural History’s David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, which opens March 17. They are perhaps the best-researched renderings of their kind. Gurche, a “paleo-artist,” even molds the hominids’ eyes out of acrylic plastic, eschewing pre-fabricated versions. “If you want the eyes to be the window to the soul,” Gurche says, “you have to make them with some depth.” The sculpture above is of Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, which walked the earth roughly three million years ago. “They still hav...

Which supplements really work? An interactive guide to evidence By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 7:30 AM February 25, 2010 BoingBoing isn't the only place trying out new design ideas today. Information is Beautiful has given us an exclusive preview of a new interactive infographic, designed to make it easy for anybody to parse the data on dietary supplements. Each bubble represents a specific use—or group of uses—for a dietary supplement. The bigger the bubble, the more popular the supplement is, as measured in Google hits. The higher on the chart, the more solid the evidence supporting that particular supplement for that particular use. David from IiB reviewed nearly 1000 studies to put this baby together, using studies with large numbers of subjects or meta analysis of multiple studies whenever possible. You can read more about the methodology on the site. Great work! Still image version also available. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/25/which-supplements-re.html